Letter to the Editor

Responding to the Editorial “if Taiwan Is Attacked, Should We Defend It?”

The Revere Journal published an opinion piece on Taiwan last week that asked the question, “If Taiwan is attacked, should we defend it?” My hometown newspaper concluded that, in their view, “Taiwan is not worth shedding one drop of American blood.”  This is a dangerous point of view, and it required a response.

There’s no denying that politically, Taiwan is a stain on the Chinese Communist Party’s resume and that tactically, the People’s Republic of China’s efforts to unite the Republic of China (Taiwan) with the mainland through measures like economic intimidation and political maneuvering have backfired (support for Taiwanese independence is continues to gain traction on the island). There’s also no denying that China is publicly posturing for war considering it abandoned the “one country, two systems” policy in Hong Kong to reclaim control over the port city and as recently as October 1st-4th, China dispatched a record-setting number of sorties into Taiwan’s air defense zone. Further, the United States recognizes that it has “few credible options” to respond if China were to seize a set of islands administered by Taiwan in the South China sea.

But does this mean China will truly invade?

A successful invasion of Taiwan requires an element of surprise (China is currently openly posturing for war), as well as a massive well trained amphibious invasion force and the ability to maintain shipping lanes between mainland China and Taiwan. Further, to even make it to the island, the People’s Liberation Army would need to make an eight-hour trek across the Taiwan Strait through the heart of Taiwanese defense with limited areas to land troops since roughly only 10 percent of Taiwan’s coastline is suitable for an amphibious landing. This means Taiwan could mass troops and artillery on these specific landing zones to exact a heavy toll on the PLA’s force while waiting for western allies to help close the strait and prevent the mainland from resupplying the first few waves of the island assault. These facts do not account for the elephant in the room in that Chinese forces have minimal experience with amphibious operations and an invasion such as this is extraordinarily complicated for a force with such limited expertise in combining ocean and land war combat. 

The Revere Journal failed to realize, like many pundits, Taiwan is a red herring. An invasion of Taiwan makes little sense, because above all, the likelihood of failure is too great and taking the island by force would not solve China’s existential strategic problem – the United States and her allies can deny China access to global oceans. It’s difficult to display without a map, but the United States directly or through her partner nations control every major sea lane along China’s coastline. What’s really happening: China is pushing buttons to get away with what it can while working actively to undermine U.S. relations with key nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Their focus is on driving wedges between us so that western resolve in supporting Taiwan wanes and or we turn our back on each other. Now, more than ever, we need to double down on our commitment to our Pacific friends and stand with Taiwan. It’s this unified global resolve against the Communist Part of China that keeps them at bay and anyone with an isolationist mentality directly undermines that. 

Charles Giuffrida